Three Poems by Gabby Gilliam

 

Act of Contrition

 

I bruised my knees 

begging for your forgiveness 

 

counted plastic beads 

as I repeated the prayers 

 

a priest’s prescription for penance 

of my childhood sins. 

 

How many Hail Marys would I get now that I use 

my knees for a different type of service? 

 

Can our Lady of Peace 

offer an olive branch 

 

or is my mouth too soiled 

to hold absolution on my tongue?

Cretaceous Trepidation

 

Did the dinosaurs look up 

at the asteroid as it broke 

through the atmosphere, blazing 

like a smaller sun 

and marvel at its beauty 

before it destroyed their world? 

 

Did they have time 

as it streaked above their heads 

to consider its intentions? 

 

Or was it just another shooting star 

to them, universal refuse destined

to burn brightly until it devoured itself? 

 

Was it only later 

as volcanoes belched ash 

and the earth shook 

with the impact’s repercussions 

that the danger registered 

 

as they sank in oceans of tar 

entombed by molten earth 

their bones suffocating for millennia 

until an excavating human 

exhumed them and the fossils 

gasped in the open air?

Everything’s on Fire

after “Blue Poles,” by Jackson Pollock (USA) 1952

If I close my eyes 

all I can see is the world burning 

flames

dancing on eyelids 

like fresh spring sunlight 

but

every time I blink there are more 

trees blackened by forest fires 

a

barren battalion of stalwart trunks 

primed for a potent wind.

Gabby Gilliam lives in the DC metro area. Her poetry has most recently appeared in Tofu Ink, The Ekphrastic Review, Cauldron Anthology, Instant Noodles, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and three anthologies from Mythos Poets Society. You can find her online at gabbygilliam.squarespace.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GabbyGilliamAuthor.